Fruitful meeting
The annual meeting for the LHC Performance Workshop was held in Chamonix from 25 to 29 January 2010 in the Centre de Congrès Le Majestic. The Workshop focused on how to reach the maximum operating energy.
The LHC Performance Workshop took place between 25 and 29 January 2010 in a rather chilly Chamonix. Following the successful start of beam commissioning last year, there remain a number of important questions about the near future of the machine. Topics discussed included the maximum operational energy that will be possible in 2010 and the steps need to go above the planned 2010 start-up energy of 3.5 TeV. Of particular importance were the required splice and magnet consolidation measures that would be demanded by an increase above this energy. The energy in the magnets and beams will always represent a considerable threat, and the possible impact of an incident and the potential measures required to speed up a recovery were put on the table.
Safety is critical and there were in-depth examinations of underground safety, radiation safety and the LHC access system. The potential impact of radiation on the widely distributed LHC electronics components also received attention. Looking to the more distant future, three half-day sessions were devoted to the necessary consolidation of the injectors and the upgrade possibilities of the injector complex and the LHC. Once the LHC is safely delivering the nominal collision rate, the aim would be to deliver ultimate intensities to the LHC and possibly replace the powerful quadrupole magnets either side of the two big experiments with an even stronger design. Combined, the two would push the physics discovery reach of the LHC even further.
Things are moving fast on the ground but a lot of effort is going to be required in the long term to keep the LHC on track for the important combination of high energy and high luminosity.
For further information about the Chamonix Meeting, please read also the "Better on the longer run" article.
by Mike Lamont
